Director: Freddie Wong Kwok-shiu
Cast: John Chang, Irene Wan, Joman Chiang, Wei Wei, Elena Kong, Katie Kwok
Adapted from the landmark novel The Drunkard (Jiutu, 1963) of Liu Yichang, one of the most notable Hong Kong writers who has influenced many Hong Kong artists, including the famous director Wong Kar Wai. This is the film debut from the critic-turned-director Freddie Wong (nominated for Best New Director in Hong Kong Film Awards for this movie), who also wrote the screenplay of this movie. Set in the era of 1960's Hong Kong, a struggling middle-aged writer named Mr. Lau (John Chang), who abuses his life with alcohols, finds out that his idealism for writing only good literatures may not survive him in a publication world full of commercialisms. And in order to live, he may have to let go of his dignity and write popular pulp fictions, such as martial arts and erotic stories. Besides alcohol, he also lives a lustful life by seeking comforts from one woman to another, including paying for sex and sleeping with other man's wife. An alcoholic and a womanizer, deep down inside he lives a bitter life, that the more he falls for his demons, the more he may loathe himself for what he may not become, and the more difficult for him to escape his addictions that may lead him straight to self destructions.
As an art movie, this is not a movie for everybody. But if you could enjoy it, then you may find the beauty of this movie, that is almost poetic, but at the same time also a bit too literature. It was slow moving and many of the scenes were just suggested, meaning the story will tell you that something important has happened without showing you in visual how it's happened. When you need to see some direct actions or conflicts, it will rather show you in a narative way, interrupted the scenes with Chinese writings on an empty black screen, explaining the things or how Mr. Lau thinks. Many times, it was like reading poetries, one after another. However, that was also the beauty of this movie. The atmosphere of the movie also brought us to that era, when people smoking a lot and Chinese women wearing cheongsam everywhere, even though without showing any significant settings, as the films were mostly shot indoor.
John Chang, the senior Taiwanese actor, gave a very solid performance as Mr. Lau. You can feel his deep personal struggling inside, while at the same time convinced by his believable acting as an alcoholic writer who just can't stop drinking, as well as a middle-aged man who is good when dealing with women. He's not the most handsome man around, but women like him, from a wild under-aged girl Katie Kwok, to a beautiful matured married woman Irene Wan (who still looks gorgeous in her mid forties), and to an attractive and sexy nightclub hostess, Joman Chiang (she played a double role here, another role as a young man a friend of Mr. Lau, who invited him to start a literature magazine together). All these actresses did look nice and elegant in their Chinese cheongsam outfits. There was one scene where Joman Chiang daringly appeared nude, shot from behind, as the erotic scene in the movie.
This is a movie that will intrigue us more on how we feel about it, rather than seeing big things that will happen on screen, because it won't. Instead, it will involve us to think and reflect. It's a literature challenge in a form of a movie. A beautiful movie in a literature package, that may scare people away if they're not used to it. (MJ)
